Ping masking and one of the easiest ways to spot it.

[StarsMine]

Going to bump this as I ran into again today.
Though a valve update seems to have fucked this tell up.

[Bruce Dern]

bruce dern here, i am a regular on both the gungame and zombie mod servers. i understand the server is located in washington dc, and i happen to live less than 5 miles from washington dc. therefore i always have low latency. i usually get anywhere from 2-15 on any given day or time. i was accused of ping masking by starsmine several weeks ago, and was kicked. i explained to him where i live and that i would not know the first thing about how to ping mask. i was told to change my rates to server specifications (which were already pretty close) cmdrate 67(i had 66), updaterate 67 (i had 66) and rate 30000 (which i had). several other players told him that my latency was always low and fluctuated and that even if i did ping mask i didnt lag, so it didn't matter. eventually he gave up and we continued playing. today i was accused of the same thing by 5 lb gummybear. i again explained to him the exact same things as i had in the previous incident. he kicked me and told me to fix my rates, which i did. (because for some reason they set themselves back to 66 instead of 67) and came back. he was unsatisfied. i was banned for not listening to an admin. basically i am here today to say YOU CAN have a latency below 5 and not be ping masking. you said it yourself latency = ping -40. this being the ping that you find in console by typing "ping" which from my understanding cannot be manipulated. i usually have a ping of around 35-40, which from your explanation would give me a latency of -5 to 0, which i am above. i do not know how to ping mask, and seeing as how i live right next to the server, i have no reason to. please inform your admins that you can have a latency below 5, and that i should not be kicked and banned for no reason. for reference, here is my ip address: 108.28.102.135. if you search that you will find that i am located in kensington, maryland, which is about 5 miles from washington dc. i understand the ban was only an hour, so i am not asking to be unbanned, but please do not ban me in the future for something i cannot control

[NLA]

Kicking people from the server who legitimately have low ping is at best ignorant and at worse borderline retarded. Here is the sequence of steps admins should take when dealing with this "issue":

1. Press Tab during gameplay and observe player pings.
2. If a player with a <10ms ping is spotted, observe the player for lag, and listen for other player complaints about this individual lagging.
3. If lag is present, ask the player to fix their rates; kick them if they do not comply, ban them for one hour if they do not comply and continue to rejoin the server after being kicked. If lag is not present, leave the player alone.

It seems like some of our admins don't mind skipping step 2, blindly following the rules instead of interpreting them and applying common sense.

[Bruce Dern]

also for reference

[StarsMine]

I dont recall banning you. And the time you had <5 I apologize, it seems the net code was changed as valve often does. And what I recall when you were playing it would go below and get stuck even if your ping went above 45. So I dont know what is going on there with you exactly, but something is wonky there. But as I said in the post above yours valve seems to fucked it up. I also recall that after I kicked you, it did not go below 5 until the next map.

Even if you have 20ms ping to the servers, the tab should show 5. and it does for everyone. even if you play on the server the tab ping is shown as 5.
But since you are not causing any magic bullet shit, Im going to put you up as some sort of glitch.

[::Paper::]

I had the same problem before I was an admin I was accused of ping masking all the time I live in richmond,va and D.C is usually 5-20ms for me all the time watching for lag is all you can do and if you are kicked or ban I would just tell them where u leave and to be aware of the distance and they should look more closely before doing it again but kicking because of low ping is not a way to detect if you are ping masking -_-

[ZERO]

Just wanted to point out that from my test ping below 5 should still not be possible or is it...

Here you can see me playing on the same pc as the server and then playing while being the server. In the case when connecting to myself my ping is 10 and latency is 5. When playing while being the server itself my ping is 0 and latency 1. So it would appear that valve had removed or changed the hard limits likely dependent on leerp setting more than anything as the server forces min and max values for rate, cl_updaterate and cmd_updaterate.

ping.png

ping2.png

[CYBER]

soooooooooo... yeay or nay or the minimum 5 ping threshold for non-ping maskers?

also...

5LB Gummybear ibis.a: when they see this they can change that rule. you were banned for 1 hour for not listening
Bruce Dern: i'm gonna go get admin while i'm there so i can ban people for no reason
Bruce Dern: 11 dollars a month is it?
Bruce Dern: yup, gonna do that
5LB Gummybear ibis.a: not a smart idea
Bruce Dern: you seem to think it is
5LB Gummybear ibis.a: like i said i banned you for not listening the demo shows that
Bruce Dern: 108.28.102.135 that is my ip
Bruce Dern: search where its from
5LB Gummybear ibis.a: go post your thread in ping masking section to get this resolved
Bruce Dern: how long am i banned for?
5LB Gummybear ibis.a: 1 hour
Bruce Dern: all servers?
5LB Gummybear ibis.a: yes
Bruce Dern: wow
5LB Gummybear ibis.a: http://www.ibisgaming.com/forums/sho...ays-to-spot-it.
5LB Gummybear ibis.a: post there
5LB Gummybear ibis.a: then if you feel i banned you for no reason go to the admin abuse section
5LB Gummybear ibis.a: http://www.ibisgaming.com/forums/for.../7-Admin-Abuse
5LB Gummybear ibis.a: there
5LB Gummybear ibis.a: and create a post
Bruce Dern: well im gonna get this resolved another way...talk to spasm and steamer and get ur admin revoked
Bruce Dern: and relliks

Gummybears is doing his job Bruce. I don't see how you could get his admin revoked for NOT abusing, and for doing his job. lol...

And i really don't like the way you threaten of buying admin and using it poorly. By all means though, go for it. More money for the servers, and it would be my very privilege to perma ban you if you went all the way to admin abuse this way.

Take a chill pill and wait-out the results of this thread, because unless you're accusing Spasm and Steamer of being full retards, then i can't see how they could jump the shark on this like you did lol...

[Bruce Dern]

oh that was all definitely in anger lol....i most likely will not buy admin now that all this is here for reference and proof. also, as several people have stated before, it must be something that valve or steam has done to change my latency because i was previously (a few years ago i used to play sporadically in ibis, and i would get around 10 latency. i have not changed anything since then (well aside from getting a new isp (went from comcast to verizon). have not changed any settings (except set my rates to server specifications) or done anything. i usually don't get any shit for it (or at least when i do, i tell people my circumstances and they leave it at that, because in the end i am not lagging and am fairly easy to kill :P)
edit: i also appreciate all that you admins do here, and definitely understand wanting to get rid of ping maskers. i've seen people in there that were lagging a hell of a lot and had latencies of 5 or 1 or whatever) lagging so much it made them hard to kill mind you. but when i am confronted on the matter and tell you all the absolute truth and give you ways to verify my claims, i expect to be left alone. what was i supposed to do? lie and say i was ping masking to get him off my back? i still couldn't have changed my latency...i mean unless i went to download a bunch of porn :P. i admit i got heated with gummybear both in game and in steam messages, but that was only because he was basically calling me a liar and telling me to fix something that i cannot possibly fix. it's like accusing me of murder and demanding that i show him the murder weapon....how am i supposed to help him lol. in the future, just please work a little bit harder before handing out bans and kicks all willy nilly. i gave you SEVERAL easy ways to find out that i was telling the truth

[Rellikdloc]

Not everything can happen at the snap of your fingers. Just b/c someone says they are not lying doesnt mean they are or are not. Yes you provided proof but that also takes time to look at and sort out the problem as to why this is happening in the first place. He kicked you and told you to fix it, correct you might not have been able to fix it but he was doing procedure. Sometimes a kick will take care of certain ppl that are playing illegaly. You were ban b/c you kept arguing with an admin and talking over him instead of listening to him you cant tell and admin what to do and to "leave you alone" b/c you told him the truth. Making this post is what you should have done when he kicked you the 1st time instead of rejoining when you knew there would be a problem. I mean you've known there was problem, you admitted that you had conflict over this before with starsmine. This post should have been written then and you would have never had this problem in the 1st place. Dont get your panties all in a bunch, next time just try and go about it in the right way and things will work themselves out like they did here today, its not like this problem even took a full day to get taken care of.